Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device for providing a user interface that may be easily and familiarly used by a user who uses a flexible display, and a control method thereof.
Description of the Related Art
These days, there are many types of input devices such as a key pad, a mouse, a track ball, a touch pad, a joystick, a touch screen, or the like in order to manipulate a computer system. Such input devices are used to input data a user desires such as a letter, a symbol, a picture, or the like to a computer system and input a signal for requesting a specific command from the computer system.
Among the various input devices, recently, a touch input means such as a touch screen that can minimize and simplify a device by implementing an input means and an output function together is generally used.
A touch input means may sense contact with a touch region by a contact means such as a human body part of a user or a touch pen and may be classified into a resistive type, a capacitive type, and an optical type. The resistive-type touch input means senses a touch by recognizing a pressure applied to a contact point by the touch, the capacitive-type touch input means senses a touch through a change in an electric charge on a contact point caused by contact of a human body part of a user, and the optical-type touch input means detects a touch position using an infrared light camera and an infrared light lamp.
An initial method for providing a user interface using such a touch input means displays a manipulation means such as multiple buttons on a screen and performs a corresponding function based on a position where contact is sensed. Recently, in order to enhance a user's convenience and operability, a method of combining a variety of information such as a contact start position, a contact start time, a contact end position, and a contact end time, recognizing a user touch gesture such as tapping, dragging, sliding, and pinching, and executing various user commands according to the touch gesture is used. In addition, a method of recognizing multiple touch points in a touch region and executing a user command according to the number of, positions of, combinations of, and distance changes between the touch points.
Furthermore, recently, along with the development of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology, flexible display technology was developed. Much research has been conducted on various user interfaces using a flexible display.
However, a conventional user interface method using a touch has difficulty in user manipulation because a user makes a complex touch gesture or touches several points to draw a complex pattern. In addition, much research has been conducted on a user interface using the flexible display by changing the form of the flexible display while the flexible display is gripped with both hands. Thus, when a scheme in which several necessary commands are entered while the flexible display is gripped with both hands and an existing touch input scheme in which a touch gesture or a touch pattern is entered are combined with each other and used, the two-hand grip of the flexible display should be released in order to input a touch. Thus, it will be expected to have limitations.
In addition, the conventional user interface method has limitations in providing an instant response because it takes a certain time to perform and then recognize a touch gesture or touch pattern.